Benefits
by LovinLife4ever
Summary: Okay, so in back in High School I hooked up with Troy Bolton... a lot. And I figured I'd never see him again. Only now, my brother and I are living with his girlfriend and him. Um... This may get just a little awkward. Troypay, maybe some Ryella.
1. Benefits

**Okay. So to you guys who read my other stuff, this may be slightly more mature. It was just sort of a random thought turned into a story, something to get rid of the current writer's block that I'm experiencing. I started writing today at 11 and I can't stop! I'm posting the first two chapters today. To be honest, I'm almost done with chapter three. So look out. I hope you guys will like. **

**Disclaimer: I own nothing.  
**

"And why should it matter to you if Stacy studies with me at my place?" Sean asked, crossing his arms.

"That's not the problem." I tucked a stray hair behind my ear and huffed. "Why does it have to be just the two of you, at your place, when your parents aren't home?"

"Nothing is going to happen Shar. I need someone to study with while you're out playing movie star." Lately, Sean had found that with this excuse, he could get away with everything, since I had been busy lately, with tutoring and driving into the city for auditions, this was the only night I had in the past few weeks. Only, Sean had already promised slutty Stacy Callahan that they could have a 'one on one study session'. Sean placed is arms around my waist. "Don't you trust me?"

The worlds 'hell no' came to mind. I sighed. "Whatever, do what you want." I pushed his arms away from my waist, turning on my heel and walking away.

Sean was no big deal, just like most of the relationships that took place in my high school experience. It was all just pointless drama and heartache. I kept guys around so that I wouldn't have to go to stag to parties to be pitied/ridiculed my peers. That didn't stop me from getting attached, though. I ended up getting hurt a lot back then, but I hated being vulnerable. I needed something to soften the blow. I guess, that's what Troy was for.

I turned a corner, allowing myself to come apart a little bit. A walked a little bit faster, not wanting to be caught in the halls, blinking back tears like a moron. But before I could start freaking out, I was pulled by my elbow into the janitor's closet.

This momentarily scared the living hell out of me. "Shhh. It's just me." A familiar voice cooed in my ear.

I squinted to get my eyes used to the dim room. "Troy? Why are you here?"

"Do I need a reason?" Troy snapped, giving me his answer. Lately, he had been in a rough patch with his girlfriend, Casey. I guess they were done. Troy pressed his lips against mine, pushing me against the wall. "I want to see you." He said, moving down to my neck.

"Here?" I asked. "That's disgusting Troy."

"No." Troy laughed. "At my place, tonight."

I looked down at the heart shaped pendant hanging from my neck guiltily. "This is sort of a bad time for me."

Troy stopped his attack on my neck for a moment, noticing the pendant. He took it in his hand. "Sean Porter, huh?" He looked up at me and I nodded. He examined the necklace closely. "I can already tell, the guy is an asshole."

Even though Troy was pretty much right, I felt the need to defend Sean. "How exactly do you know."

Troy smirked. "You're worth more than a cheap, tin heart necklace."

I thought about Sean, then about Stacy… I looked up at Troy. "I'll be there. Text me."

Troy smiled. "I'll see you then."

I smiled back as I exited the closet, feeling a weird but familiar mix of excited and ashamed. I was used to it by now, and so was Troy. He went to West High, I went to East. That was part of what made us so perfect, we managed to doge each other's gossip circles.

My name is Sharpay Evans. And I am not a whore. I'm not a sex addict either, if that's what you're thinking. I'm making this clear because in back in my high school days, I had sex with Troy Bolton on various occasions. We weren't exactly friends with benefits, but we knew each other better than most people, and we were always there when we needed each other, like after a bad break up, or after failing a test or something. We just sort of… hooked up.

He was sort of a break from my schedule that I desperately needed, because I'd desperately wanted to be an actress. Since according to my dad, getting an education came first, by my junior year, all of my classes were either AP or for college credit. After school and sometimes on weekends, I had private tutors to get more credits, A few times a month, I'd go to auditions, And maybe land a commercial, or maybe a guest spot on a Soap Opera, once I was even in a music video, but nothing close to a big break.

After Junior year, I graduated with the Seniors, but on the day of the ceremony, my agent called and flew me out to Hollywood. I had gotten a supporting role in Chick Movie. One of this incredibly crappy, unfunny, parody films. But it was a really big part, so I took it. My dad got me new tutors, and since the film only took about one horrible month to shoot, I was hastily moved to New Mexico State University, just about the second the plane landed. By the time I was nineteen, I had fulfilled the bare minimum of the graduation requirements, which was good enough for my dad.

"Shar, if you really do make it, what are the chances of you hooking me up with Jessica Alba or something?" Ryan asked, in his car after picking me up from the airport.

"Didn't she just have a kid?" I asked, raising an eyebrow at my brother.

"Is that relevant?" He laughed. "She's still hot."

I rolled my eyes back at my brother. "You never change."

"No, but seriously Shar. I'm so psyched that you're moving in with us." He said. By 'moving in with us' Ryan meant that I had decided to go back to Los Angeles, and he had recently been kicked out of his dorm at UCLA for exceeding the noise limit, so I decided to split rent with him at some place.

"Who exactly is 'us' again?" I asked.

"Just me and two kids who went to West High we're all at UCLA together." Ryan smiled sheepishly. "I found them on Facebook."

"What are they like?" I asked.

"Well, I just moved in this morning. But from what I can tell, they're a couple of, quote on quote, 'good kids'. Like, human dolls."

"Well sharing an apartment with Barbie and Ken sure sounds like fun." I said sarcastically.

"They're not that bad though, Barbie is kind of cute." Ryan said.

"That sure is encouraging, things are starting to look up now that my brother can ogle the Barbie doll we're living with."

"Relax, Barbie and Ken were voted cutest couple last year." Ryan rolled his eyes at me. "She's off limits."

"How do you know this?" I asked.

"Because Barbie put their prom king and queen pictures on the mantle and I was stupid enough to ask about it." Ryan laughed.

"Oh dear God."

"Trust me Shar, they're not as bad as they sound." Ryan said, parking his car. And helping me bring my bags inside. "Dammit Shar, how much stuff do you have?"

"The rest of it is coming in tomorrow." I said, digging the key Ryan gave me out of my pocket while trying to balance two suitcase in my other hand. "Time to meet Barbie and Ken." I muttered to myself.

I opened the door to see a figure standing in the kitchen unloading some boxes. "Hey, Ryan, have you seen Gabriella? She's not answering her cell phone-" He stopped talking when he looked up. "Sharpay?"

I looked up and nearly fell backward when I saw Troy Bolton, drinking coffee in my new apartment.

**What do you guys think. I think it kind of sucked because I had to set everything up, but give chapter two a chance, I'll be posting shortly.**


	2. Barbie and Ken

**Nothing to say. Read and enjoy...**

When I first met Troy, I was crashing a party. I was sixteen, and I had just been dumped but my boyfriend of six months. It was my first and last experience with alcohol in my teen years. I was mad, after catching Kevin with another girl. He was my first, and as I mentioned before, I hated being vulnerable. I drank cup after cup before I was sufficiently drunk, and then I met Troy, who was just about as drunk as I was. I'd like to say that I've never hooked up with someone at a house party, which is a move that I find trashy and disgusting, but that would be a lie. And yes, that means Troy and I hooked up. We met four months later at an East vs. West basketball game. We exchanged phone numbers, and somehow, managed to understand exactly what we were getting into.

We only ever texted because talking on the phone was too personal, we tried to keep our lives apart as much as we could, but we always seemed to figure out exactly what was happening in each other's life. It was almost like we had a secret code. I guess, in that way, we knew each other better than our friends knew us. Which was kind of weird, considering that we barely ever talked. Which is why when I found him sitting in the kitchen of my new apartment, I screamed.

"What's wrong Shar?" Ryan asked. "Oh, hey Troy. I see you too have met."

"You could say that." I said, trying to calm myself down.

"Um… Sharpay and I met at a basketball game a few years ago, she was just surprised to see me, right?" Troy asked.

"Exactly." I said, stepping inside. "Nice to see you again Troy."

"You must be Sharpay." A feminine voice came from behind me. An energetic brunette girl came through the door and hugged me. "I'm Gabriella." She said.

"I'm Sharpay." I said.

"I know, I looked you up." Gabriella said. "You have your own page on Wikipedia, isn't that cool? I saw you in the Jason Quincy music video, you looked so perfect together. I also saw Chick Movie, but I wasn't a big fan of that."

"No problem, neither was I." I smiled. "It was supposed to be m big break, now no one takes me seriously."

"That kind of sucks." Gabriella said. "I hope you don't think I'm a total creep for looking you up."

"Not at all." Even though it did sort of creep me out, she seemed nice.

"I just thought since we're going to share a room, it'd be cool if I knew you a little bit." She said.

"So you're not sharing a room with Troy?" I asked.

Gabriella flushed red. "No."

I blushed. "Oh... sorry. I just assumed, since you guys are dating…"

Gabriella smiled and held out her hand, showing off a ring engraved with the words 'Love is Forever'.

Okay. This was entertaining. "So how long have you been together?"

"Since senior year. Isn't it great?" She asked, now gushing. "I mean, how rare is it that at such a young age, I could find someone who is on the same level that I am, someone who respects my belief that making love should be saved for the person who you'll spend forever with?"

"Pretty rare." I said. Now almost feeling bad.

"Exactly." Gabriella said. Turning and pointing to a door. "That one is our room, there's plenty of room, and I already put in some of my stuff, I hope you don't mind."

I smiled. "I'm just glad that I won't have to share a room with my brother."

Gabriella laughed. "I'll see you later."

"Okay." I said. Glad that I somehow managed to keep her from hating me.

I walked into the room, Gabriella was right, it was pretty spacious. There was already a mattress for me (my dad probably had it sent). I plugged in my cell phone, lap top, and iPod chargers and began putting my clothes in my half of the closet.

"Mind if I come in?"

I turned to see Troy standing at the doorway. "No, come in." I said.

Troy entered and sat on my bed. "I just wanted to say hi… it's been a while."

"Yeah." I said awkwardly, sitting down on my bed next to him.

Troy looked down. "I was just wondering…"

"If I told Ryan about anything? No." I said.

"Good." Troy let out a sigh of relief. "I mean… not that I'm ashamed."

"No… I get it." I smiled, trying (unsuccessfully) to make this as painless as I possibly could. "The last thing we both need are the skeleton from the eternal closet of our high school years coming back to haunt us."

"Right." Troy smiled. "So we can just start over?"

"I think that's the best way to address this situation." I said. "I mean, I'm here with my brother, and you're here with your girlfriend! If anyone were to find out, it would just be hard on everyone. And I like it here… you guys aren't half bad."

"Thanks." Troy said with a laugh. He was about to get up when he looked straight at me. "Can I ask you something?"

"Anything." I replied, leaning back absent mindedly.

"Did you get anything in the mail from me… about a year ago?" He asked nervously.

I blushed, and reached under my bed for my bag. I opened a small box and inside was a ring with a garnet stone in the middle and the word Troy engraved in it. "I was going to send it back but I wasn't sure where you-"

"I want you to keep it." Troy smiled. "Just don't tell Gabriella, she thinks I lost it."

"Why would you give me your class ring?" I asked.

"Well, no matter what happens now. Out of all the things that happened in high school, I remembered you the most. I guess I'm kind of hoping that this will make you remember me too." Troy said.

I smiled. "I can't keep it… it's yours."

"Yes you can." Troy said.

"How do you figure?" I asked, crossing my arms.

"You didn't know that we'd end up sharing an apartment." Troy smirked, standing up. "And yet you kept it with you this whole time."

"That is completely irrelevant." I crossed my arms.

"If you say so." He said, drifting out the door.

I didn't realize it until then. But he was right.

**Please give me suggestions or any kind of feed back you can. I'm almost done with chapter three, which I'm hoping will be longer and better edited than these. So look out for those. Bye for now - LL4E**


	3. Just That Kind of Guy

**Okay, so if you want to blame this chapter not being up sooner on me being a total bitch, that is completely fine. My laptop is conspiring against me (I'm starting to think that Microsoft Word is in on it too) and it decide that it would self delete the finished chapter three. So I had to rewrite it. Anyways, I'm ecstatic that you guys like this, I was kind of skeptical at first, but I figured it was a good enough idea to turn into a story. I was just worried that I wouldn't be able to do it without it being one gigantic 'that's what she said' joke. I'm kind of liking how its turning out though.**

**P.S. Happy New Year! And a belated happy holidays to all of my readers (assuming that I actually have reader and I'm not just talking to myself like a psycho)!  
**

"Can I ask you something about Troy?" I asked Gabriella, as I was painting the toenails of her left foot. Since it was our first night sharing a room, we decided to try hanging out. We had already discussed the pros and cons of Miley Cyrus, had a Grey's Anatomy vs. House debate (Team House!!!), agreed that Sarah Palin is more annoying than the whole cast of the Hills put together (it was a close though… dangerously close), so I felt, and decided that Christian Bale is just as hot as Patrick Dempsey, so I felt comfortable enough to ask about Troy.

"Sure." Gabriella said, smiling at the mention of Troy. She leaned back and sighed. "Troy is so amazing, ask anything."

"What's your story?" I asked. "How long were you two together?"

"Since senior year. I was new, and I joined this club, Connections: Keeping on the Straight and Narrow, and I was handing out flyers for a movie night we were having at my place and I dropped the flyers. He helped me pick them up from the ground, he even helped me hang them up during free period." Gabriella smiled wistfully and giggled. "I'm sorry, it was just so sweet."

"No, I understand." I said, looking down at her toenails. "Go on."

"Anyways, even though he was nice, there was something off about him, he was like, hallow, or something. I actually thought he was on drugs or something." Gabriella scrunched up her face. I tried not to flatter myself into thinking that he was torn up over me, but I'll admit, I felt just a little bit excited. "So I invited him to stay after school for the Connections meeting after school. He even gave me a ride home so I wouldn't have to walk alone. By movie night, we were a couple."

"That's sweet." I said with a smile. I never really thought of Troy as a sweet kind of guy. I guess it's kind of hard to think of someone as sweet once they've accidentally ripped your favorite shirt because he freaked out when thought he heard someone opening the front door.

"I know. He's just that kind of guy." Gabriella said and I held back a laugh. "He was even okay with the whole purity ring thing."

"Really?" I asked.

"Really." Gabriella sighed. "I mean, seriously, the basketball star, dating one of the prudes? That must have been horrible for him. I can only imagine the kind of stuff that people must have been saying to his face, let alone behind his back. But he didn't care. He never cared about that kind of stuff."

"Yeah." Well, she was right about that. For a basketball player, he surprisingly didn't give a shit what people thought of him. I mean, he wasn't completely socially suicidal, but he wasn't the one who initiated the whole 'no acknowledging each others existence while other people were around.' rule that we had.

"He had so much respect for me. He never even so much as mentioned doing anything that I don't want to do. It's like we had this connection, he just understood me so well!" Gabriella was almost giddy just talking about Troy, making it increasingly harder to paint her toenails. "So for our six month anniversary, I got him a purity ring, just like mine!"

I didn't know what to say. I mean, I could understand how Troy didn't tell Gabriella the he had a fuck buddy in high school (let alone that said "fuck buddy" was the girl she'd be sharing a room with), but lying about being a virgin? That was no joke. "That's… great." I said awkwardly.

"And we've been together ever since." Gabriella took a deep breath. I was glad that we were done with the subject. Gabriella's face lit up. "I just had the best idea! I could start a Connections Club for UCLA!"

"Cool." I said, somewhat absently.

"You could totally join." Gabriella giggled. "I mean, it doesn't matter that you don't go to the college. No one will care."

"I'll be sure to look into that." I wasn't sure if Gabriella sensed the sarcastic tone in my voice, but she went on anyways.

"It'll be amazing, like a sorority only better! We can have study groups, and movie nights, and… theme parties!" This seemed to trigger some sort of physical reaction in Gabriella, she started to squeak and giggle like crazy. "Like the eighties!"

Okay. Now, I understood what was with her extreme reaction to the thought of theme parties, because I was experiencing it too. "I'm like, in love with the eighties." I said, looking straight at Gabriella. "Okay, I'm not usually into theme parties, but I totally have to go to this one. I could seriously go as like, Madonna or something."

Gabriella's face lit up, even more than it had before. "And I could totally be Coco Hernandez from-"

"Fame!" I finished for her. "That movie is the reason why I wanted to go into show business."

"It's my favorite movie of all time." Gabriella squealed.

And that was the first time ever that I truly felt like I understood Gabriella. "It's my second." I smiled, "But only because The Breakfast Club is literally the best movie of all time. Hands down."

"I love Molly Ringwald." Gabriella said. "Everything she did was just so perfect. I loved Pretty in Pink."

"She should have picked Ducky, though." I said, letting my bitterness on the subject shine through.

"I know, no one compares to Ducky." Gabriella said. "Especially not Jake Ryan."

"Exactly!" I said. "We have to get together sometime and watch all of these movies."

"We could totally make a night out of it." Gabriella said excitedly. "We could listen to music, and watch the movies…"

"We have to watch Dirty Dancing." I said. "And Footloose, and Flash Dance, and every other eighties dance movie ever made."

"And everything with Tom Cruise in it." Gabriella swooned. "I remember back when Tom Cruise wasn't insane and just straight up hot."

"We dance around in Ray Bans like Tom Cruise did in Risky business." I said between giggles. At this we both burst out into a major fit of laughter. We were both shocked and ecstatic that we had found common ground. I mean, how weird is it that we both were in a passionate love affair with the eighties. She was the last person in the universe that I thought I'd ever identify with. That's when I noticed that Troy was standing at the door, watching us. I abruptly stopped laughing. "Well if you're waiting for us to kiss or something, it's not going to happen."

Troy's face flushed as Gabriella turned around and smiled. "Oh, hey baby."

"Hey." Troy said, stepping closer to the doorway. "Do you mind if I borrow Sharpay for a second? Ryan is asleep and I need your emergency phone number, just in case."

"Now?" I raised an eyebrow. I knew Troy was lying, since he already had my phone number. "Can't it wait until later?"

"Well, better safe than sorry." Troy snapped.

"It's fine." Gabriella said with a yawn. "I'm going to turn in now."

I smiled at Gabriella. "We will finish this later."

"You know where I sleep." She said.

I followed Troy out of the room, he closed the door behind him and proceeded to freak out at me. "What the hell was that?" He asked in a hushed tone.

"That was me bonding with your girlfriend over Tom Cruise and toenails." I crossed my arms and looked at him, tilting my head up a little so I could look him straight in the eye. "Got a problem?"

"Just tell me what you said to her." Troy glared at me. "It's obvious that you two were talking about me."

"Oh please, we spent more time on Patrick Dempsey than we did on you." I rolled my eyes, secretly thankful that we spent a full half hour discussing Patrick Dempsey.

"Did you tell her anything?" Troy asked. "I mean… about us."

"What, do you think I'm stupid?" I asked, crossing my arms.

"I don't know what you guys talk about!" Troy shrugged. "And who knows, maybe _you_ were pumping _her_ for information."

Though there was some truth to this, I raised my eyebrows and scoffed as a sign of disbelief. "Well, well, well, look who grew an ego." I smirked. "And besides, what could I possibly need to know about you other than you told your girlfriend that you're a virgin."

Troy's cheeks flushed bright red. "She bought me the ring and I didn't know how to tell her that the last relationship I was in had little to no emotional content."

"I wouldn't exactly call us a relationship." I said, meaning for it to bite.

Troy was momentarily phased, but then recovered. "Whatever, can we please, just not tell her about this."

"I wasn't planning on it." I snapped, turning on my heel to go back to my room. Before I opened the door, I looked back at Troy. "And by the way, don't lie to me. You didn't tell Gabriella the truth because you didn't know how to tell her. You know that a girl like her would never go for you if she knew about us." And with that, I reentered the room, closing the door behind me.

**BURN!!!!!!!!! I'm moderately sure that Troy deserved that. Anyways, since the rest of my winter vacation consists of Christmas leftovers and reruns of Full House, I should be able to update soon. Bye for now - LL4E**

**P.S. HAPPY NEW YEARS AGAIN!!! **

**P.P.S. Okay... the Caps lock might have been overkill. **


	4. Childhood Crushes

**For this update, you can thank my patron saint, mother nature. For making the mid-west overly cold. And forcing my school district to deem it 'overly cold' for the past two days. Yeah, making this a four day weekend. Which has done two things for me. I saw like, the first ten minutes of High School Musical 3. I was laughing the whole time. I mean, the locker room speech, Chad like shrieking WHAT TEAM!?, Troy falling, Gabriella standing up, standing out from the crowd, proclaiming that she believes in him, them to top it all off, Troy passing the ball to the dorky kid, who made the winning shot! (even though they all lifted Troy up instead of him... seriously) Gabriella having Troy wrapped around her finger, the booty shot of Sharpay walking down the hall, Gabriella being all like 'I want to stage the perfect Prom' I mean seriously. I thought since it was in theaters, it would be slightly less cheesy. Also, I found out that there's such thing as Sunday School Musical. And its a serious musical too. Not a parody. I mean, how hilarious is that? I'm Christian, but even I think that that's a bit much. So here you go, an update. Enjoy...**

"Hey Shar." My brother said, entering the apartment in the afternoon. I nodded in his general direction without looking up from the book I was reading. "Have you seen Gabriella?"

"She's probably off somewhere practicing her signature as Mrs. Gabriella Bolton." I said, again, without looking up.

"They're not even engaged, and she's not that deluded." Ryan said, for some reason sympathizing with her.

"What, are you gearing up to seduce little miss sunshine?" I asked, looking up.

"I think she's cute, okay? It's not like I'm stealing her. Or that I even could, for that matter." Ryan said, jumping the couch to sit next to me. "Besides, I thought you two were getting along."

"I had a little chat with her boyfriend." I rolled my eyes at the thought.

"Troy? He seems like a cool guy." Ryan said, smiling sheepishly. "But as a person who shares a room with him, I can tell you that he uses way too much axe."

"Seriously? I thought that by college he'd finally get over that." I cringed, remembering the numerous times I'd complained about the way Troy smelled.

"Give the guy a break, he didn't have a sister to tell him that those commercials would never actually happen. I mean, deep down in my heart I actually thought if I wore enough of it, hot girls would randomly jump me." Ryan said, feigning sadness. "It was worse than when I found out that the guy at the mall wasn't actually Santa Clause. Thanks for ruining that too, by the way."

"It's not my fault that his beard was faulty." I crossed my arms. "And I was six, when are you going to get over that?"

"Never. You ruined Christmas." Ryan laughed and I rolled my eyes. "Hey, wait a second, how do you know him anyways?"

"Santa Clause?"

"No. Troy."

"I don't." I snapped, then bit my lip. This was a tricky subject for Ryan and I. I knew he wouldn't get it if I told him about how Troy and I _really_ knew each other. If he knew that his new roommate had done anything more than play Scrabble with me, he would probably suffocate him in his sleep.

My silence confused Ryan. "Oh God… you like him don't you?"

My jaw dropped. "How the hell did you come to that conclusion?"

"Well you sure seem to know a lot about him for someone who isn't taking a special interest in him." Ryan gave me a scolding look and shook his head. "And you were chewing me out for calling Gabriella cute, at least I'm not trying to get into her pants."

"Okay, you're only not trying to get into her pants because you know it'd be pointless. She's not dumb enough to blow her first time on you." I rolled my eyes.

"Was that just a compliment for little miss sunshine?" Ryan asked raising an eyebrow, completely unscathed by the verbal abuse he had grown so used to.

"I'll admit, the girl has some merit." I said. "But that doesn't mean that I like her boyfriend."

"No, you like her boyfriend because you like what you can't have. You always have." Ryan said.

"I have more important things than some high school golden boy to worry about." I rolled my eyes. "Like the audition I went to this morning."

"Oh yeah." Ryan said. "How'd that go?"

"Good." I said. "Unfortunately, Chick Movie is still on the record."

"Don't worry Shar, people will get over it." Ryan said, not understanding that Chick Movie was the reason why no casting director would ever take me seriously, even if I rocked the audition like I did today.

"If you say so." I said.

"No, I'm serious. You're too good to be written off like that." Ryan said.

"No one is too good to be written off. That's why there are so many Disney movies where the kid who gets written off end up rich, famous, and with an amazing boyfriend." I tried to explain, knowing full well that it wouldn't make a difference.

"You've got the second part down, the other two will come in time." Ryan said.

"That creepy pale guy who works the morning shift at Starbucks telling me that, quote, 'my ass looks even better in person' because he saw the bikini scene in Chick Movie does not count as me being famous." I said. "Though the director did decide to stick me in a bikini for a full ten minutes, so I guess it really could be worse than some jackass barista."

"That is disgusting." Ryan said while gagging. "He is so not getting a tip anymore."

I laughed. "Thank you for defending my honor."

"Well what are brothers for?" Ryan smirked and elbowed me.

I rolled my eyes, and jumped as I heard the words 'Val Alert' coming from my cell phone, signifying that I had just been texted by my manager. I pulled the phone out of my pocket and flipped it open:

**Casting Director called**

**They like you**

**Don't screw up.**

If it weren't for the fantastically amazing good news I would have totally called Val back all ready to fire her (as I had done so many times in the past). Instead of doing this though, I screamed.

"What the hell Shar? I think I lost all hearing in my right ear!" Ryan looked at me frowning. "That better have been one hell of a good text."

"That was my manager!" I shouted, standing up.

"Oh, right." Ryan laughed. "What is it this time, a Taco Bell commercial? A part as bikini girl number three in some trashy teen surfer drama? Or does she want you to pretend to be a drug addict for some press buzz?"

"I got a call back!" I screamed now jumping up and down, to excited to roll my eyes at Ryan.

"Are you serious?"

"Well, not officially, but pretty much!"

"That's fantastic Shar!" Ryan stood up and gave me a hug.

Gabriella walked through the door. "What are we celebrating?"

Forgetting that I was supposed to be mad at her and Troy, I ran over to her. "I got a call back for a movie!"

"That's amazing! Congratulations!" Gabriella hugged me. "We have to celebrate."

"Oh my god, you're right." I said, realizing that I hadn't thought of anything awesome to do yet. "How about Pretty in Pink and Pat Benatar?"

Gabriella shook her head. "This is bigger than Pretty and Pink. Dare I say it, this is bigger than Pat Benatar."

"Though it goes against my firm belief that nothing is bigger than Pat Benatar, I'm going to have to agree." My brows furrowed before a light bulb went off in my head. "We could go clubbing!"

"What?" Gabriella seemed confused.

"There's this Club, Sunsets, that's supposed to be really great. My manager, Val has been hounding me to go. You know, to meet insiders and what not. We could use my semi-famous status to get in." I laughed at the idea.

"Don't you have to be twenty-one to get into those places?" Gabriella asked nervously.

"Only legally." I shrugged.

This didn't seem to help. "Maybe we shouldn't go. It's not safe."

"We'll be fine, and besides, just because we're there doesn't mean we have to drink."

"Come on Gabs, don't be such a goody-goody." Ryan said, approaching us.

I crossed my arms. "Who says you're invited?"

"I'll go if Ryan goes." Gabriella said quickly.

"Fine. I'm going to get dressed." I said.

"Same." Gabriella followed.

"I'll be on the couch." Ryan said, I rolled my eyes.

In about an hour, Gabriella and I were set. Gabriella had opted for a short, white bubble dress with flats, and a matching clutch (all borrowed from me), while I went for a flowing purple top with a deep V neck worn with a black cami under and black skinny jeans with pumps.

When we were all primped and ready to leave the room, Ryan got up from the couch. "You look great Gabriella."

"Wow, you were seriously on the couch this whole time weren't you?" I raised an eyebrow.

"Don't judge me." Ryan said.

"Hey, why are you guys all dressed up?" We all turned to see Troy at the door.

"We're clubbing." Gabriella said giddily.

"Clubbing?" Troy looked skeptical.

"Sharpay got a call back." Gabriella announced sounding almost like she was proud of me.

"Congrats." Troy said.

"You can come along if you want." I said, probably acting stupidly because of the excitement.

"Oh come on Troy, we're all going." Gabriella pleaded.

"Alright." Troy put down his books and smiled.

"Are you sure you're up to it?" I asked with a smirk. "Clubbing isn't for everyone you know."

"I think I can work something out." Troy smiled down at me. It was a familiar feeling that kind of swept over me, taking me back to something so… comfortable.

"Let's go." Ryan said, snapping me out of my temporary delusions.

xXxXxXx

"My manager Val Jennings said I'd be on the list." I said, crossing my arms.

"Yes, but tonight we're especially crowded, we have to cut a few people out, I'm sorry Ms. Evans." The bouncer said.

"It's fine Sharpay, we'll just go somewhere else." Gabriella said, obviously kind of freaked out by the bouncer.

"No it isn't, I have a place here, and it isn't fair that you can just decide that I'm not it." I said.

"It's fine, Mike, she's with me." A vaguely familiar voice came from behind me.

"The bouncer looked down at me and smiled. You should have told me that you were with Jason.

"Is that Jason Quincy?" Gabriella whispered in my ear.

I nodded as Jason approached me. "I remember you." He stated with a smile.

"I was in one of your music videos." I said shyly.

"I know, I just wanted to see if you remember me." Jason stepped closer to me.

"How could I forget?" I asked. "It's not every day you meet the guy you were going to marry in Junior high."

"You're the unforgettable one. Everything from your face right down to you Name." Jason looked down at me with his brown eyes. "Mrs. Sharpay Quincy. I'm not sure how smart you were in your tween years but it sounds just about right to me."

I didn't know how to respond to that, the butterflies in my stomach were transforming into little tiny tornadoes. "Thanks for getting us in again. I owe you."

"You owe me a dance once we get inside, other than that it was worth it just for this conversation." Jason laughed. "Well, shall we make our entrance, I think your friends have gone in without us."

"Well we better catch up then shouldn't we?" I said, taking his arm and walking into the club.

**Tell me if you like it....**


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